Hi all, After a glorious Easter, when we had the first fine weather in months, on Tuesday the rain descended on the Wet Tropics, 285mm in three days. The Johnstone River once again turned into a brown drain. What a difference a day makes when yesterday the skies cleared and with no run-off the river is already clear.

Easter brought the fishers onto the river and in the water, up to their waste, catching bait. What do you need to do to make people understand there are crocodiles in the Johnstone. I expressed my concerns to NPWS and they came to look and right on cue Midget woke from a doze on the beach and slipped into the water , Charlene was not seen. The ranger put a sign on the beach. Just in time for this weekend as the beach here is a favourite bait area.

Plovers are nesting on the front lawn and are very possessive of their territory. Willy Wag-tail was chased this afternoon. He stood his ground for some minutes but in the end decided the Plover was making too much fuss and he retreated.

Missed out on a cassowary food drop mid-week. I was not very concerned as the fig is dropping a lot of fruit and the cassowaries visit the tree continuously through the day. On Thursday Dad4 left the chicks and went off somewhere they whistled nonstop all day. ‘Big Sis’ came to see what was wrong but soon decided the chicks were not wanted and she chased them into the mangroves. At some stage during the night Dad4 returned and the whistling stopped.

A fisherman told me he saw ‘Little Runt’ out on the sandbar today he was eating crabs. He came over to them and put his head into their bait bucket and although he picked up their yabbies he did not eat them. Later he disappeared into the mangroves.

Yesterday April 29th was Save the Frogs Day. See savethefrogs.com/dc Spread the word and raise awareness about frog extinction. Atrazine a weedicide, which is used extensively in the Wet Tropics, is linked with frog extinction. Atrazine is an endocrine disrupter and can turn male frogs into females. It can also cause developmental problems in fish and of course cancer in humans.

Atrazine is also linked with mangrove dieback and since its use in the Johnstone Catchment, over the last ten years, mangrove dieback in the forest at Coquette Point has dramatically increased.

In today’s Innisfail Advocate’s letters, Curtis Pitt proudly announced his support for dredging of the Johnstone River. He needs to be informed that a lot of people have concerns about dredging, please write and tell him.

Cheers for now,Yvonne C.

The new Coastal Managment Plan regulates where dredging of maritime areas can occur. The bar at the mouth of the Johnstone River has been recorded and described by early maritime explorers. The bar is not the result of a natural disaster but an essential part of a natural system supposedly highly valued and formally protected for its habitat function, an estuarine conservation zone. The bar is not in a maritime development area (MDA) in the Plan. The Seahaven marina development was approved on condition there would be no dredging of the Johnstone River.Please let Curtis Pitt know that you want him to uphold the conditions for this development and to support the newly developed regulatory plan which has gone through lengthy public consultation. Liz